Foreign holidaymakers boost tourist apartment occupation rates on the Costa

Tourist apartments on the Costa del Sol welcomed 483,814 travellers in the first half of the year, according to statistics published on Tuesday by Spain's National Statistics Institute (INE). This figure is 1% higher than in the same period of 2022, when the number of people who chose this type of accommodation for holidays was 479,000.

The figures also show marked differences between foreign and domestic holidaymakers. The number of domestic holidaymakers who opted for tourist apartments was 133,343 between January and June this year, compared to more than 152,000 a year ago. This represents a decrease of 12.51%. The opposite has happened with visitors from abroad, who have gone from 326,484 in the first half of 2022 to 350,471 in the period between January and June this year, representing an increase of 7.33%.

In terms of the number of overnight stays, Spanish tourists accounted for 422,760 in the first half of the year, almost 8% less than a year ago. However, the number of nights spent by foreign visitors in tourist apartments on the Costa del Sol reached 1.94 million in the first six months of 2023, compared to 1.75 million in the same period last year, i.e. an increase of 10%.

But the month of June marked a change in trend. This is a trend that has also been observed at the national level: overnight stays in tourist apartments fell by 5.2% in June compared to the same month in 2022. Those of Spanish residents fell by 13.9%, while those of non-residents fell by 0.3%.

The average length of stay on the Costa del Sol has increased slightly from from 4.67 to 4.69 days. This is in contrast to what has happened at a national level, where it has fallen by 2.1% to 4.8 overnight stays.